After four years of studying Spanish, in thirteen minutes and fiftythree seconds you have given me a clear understanding of the two Spanish past tenses. Thanks alot.
I followed your advice asking the questions, "how many times or how often ?" and it works! I received a 98% on this section of a very long exam. There were nearly 100 questions testing the preterite vs. imperf. and I have never scored so high. There are a couple exceptions to the rules of course however, it worked literally 98% of the time. THANKS!!! So simple and so clear.
It seems to me that we are setting the background information in the imperfect, but as soon as the preterite barges in we let go of the background and focus on the new preterite event. I mean smelling the flowers in the imperfect is fine until your house catches fire in the preterite and demands your attention. Well done Gordon.
Soy Filipino. Estudio Español solo desde hace un año. Despues de ver tus videos, creo que puedes ayudarme con muchas cosas que no entiendo. Tus videos son eficazes y te mando un beso porque eres muy maestro genial. Qué claro.
Dang, your explanations are great! I've heard a lot of attempts to define these in my years of "kind of" learning Spanish, but never this clear. Set the background in imperfect, then give the action in preterit. Bloody brilliant. Thanks!
That was one of the best explanations of the distinction between preterite and imperfect that I've come across. My wife (who hasn't taken Spanish since high school) was listening in the background and she came away with a clear understanding of the two. I'll be showing part of the video to my students tomorrow in class.
Miraba a su video y me di cuenta de que Ud. es un buen maestro. Buen trabajo explicando las diferencias entre el pasado y lo imperfecto. ¡¡¡Muchas gracias!!!
Hola Gordon: as usual you are a big help! Thank you for all your help on the Preterit! You said to keep trying and I am happy to say it makes sense now! Thanks again for all the support!!! :)
Great explanation, I have grown to think of the two tenses in a comic book type of format. what you would draw to set the scene is imperfect what shows action in the frames is preterite. Not a 100% fail proof but works great most of the time
Brilliant. Ive akways struggled with this since I started learning French aged 11, 62 years ago. 🤭 our French teacher had worked as a proof reader in Paris for years but I suspect had never, in common with others of our 'teachers' been trained in how to teach.
Hello I would like to thank you for making these videos, I have studied Spanish for a year and been successful in learning a lot in that time period, although I am not learning a lot of grammar because the person I learn from is 23 but he moved from Mexico when he was 14 and never really payed attention to the grammar, so I basically never knew things like preterite or imperfect, but now having found these videos has made learning Spanish even easier grammar since you have such focused and we'll planned lessons (while keeping a funny side to them which is nice since Spanish is not all serious haha) so anyway I would like to thank you very much for 1-providing the Spain Spanish side of things and phrases and 2- helping me with grammar and how easy you make the concepts seem
Me gustó su presentación este mañana. I hope this is correct since I am a relative beginner-intermediate student. I enjoyed your presentation this morning. ¡Bien hecho!
Daniel: We are in the priocess of having all of the books accepted on Audible again. However, it may take a while as they don't travel at speed! Keep an eye out. They'll eventually appear.
Let’s also keep in mind that sometimes, whether you say a verb as of preterite or imperfect tense can affect the meaning of the verb. In the preterite tense, “saber” (to know truth) means to have found out, “conocer” (to know as in be familiar with) means to have met, and “querer” (to want or to love) with a negative word means to have refused. In other words, “querer” with a negative word in the imperfect tense must mean that although someone or something had no desire to do whatever, he/she/it did the deed nevertheless.
sunflower7202 There really is little difference between estaba hablando y hablaba. The former puts you in the moment more, but they are pretty much the same thing. :)
I have been learning Spanish on/off for years and I still can not speak fluently and I know it is because of PAST TENSES!!!!!!!!!!!! Your videos have been so helpful thank you :)
Hi Gordon. I don't know if you made a mistake by saying the "was...ing, were...ing and used to" was PRETERITE. Shouldn't it be IMPERFECT? It is around 7:57 mark. Thanks.
In Russian they explain the imperfect like this When something is not perfect thus imperfecto you have to repeat it many times. A habit is also not perfect so you have to repeat it. The indefinido they have perfecto (but this seems to be the same) is to perfect you have to do it once. This is with your explainacion helps me a lot. And the mnemonic ab(b)a sings ia is great.
First of all, thank you, this is very helpful to distinguish between imperfecto and indefinido. But, now I am confused about the use of preterito perfecto. You keep using "this morning" for the examples, but wouldn't that require preterito perfecto, like "esta mañana he bajado las escaleras etc etc " ?
Christina. You should have this reply. Let me know if you get this. It's best to contact us through our website or come and join our facebook group. search for LightSpeed Spanish.
As a native speaker of Italian, I think I've got a kind of "gut feeling" on how and when to use imperfect and preterite in Spanish, but of course I might be completely wrong: do you think that speaking another Romance language may help you when it comes to the difference between imperfect and preterite?
"What a load of rubbish." lol... "If you tell stories like that, STOP IT." LOL... This video did help quite a bit with these two past tense conjugations that continuously frustrated me. Thanks for this.
On a serious comment, at 7:47 you said you were talking with Cynthia about what we had done the previous day... what you did the previous day... that's measurable, because a time frame was indicated. Isnt that preterite?
Just because we say "yesterday" we are not measuring it and we can still describe something that happened yesterday and use the Imperfect. Measurements = one hour, all day, a long while, a short while, ect. But just saying "yesterday" isn't a measurement. You can use it with both tenses. Cx
"Cuando vivía en Mexico bebía café dos veces a la semana". Es pret. imperfecto, pero puede ser medido, ¿no?. How many times? -> "dos veces a la semana". ¿Este ejemplo no cumple esa regla?
+gargarpimpon Correcto. Lo que pasa es que no hay sólo una regla que pueda funcionar siempre sino varias. Por ejemplo, a tu frase, en English podemos añadirle 'used to' y tendría sentido. I used to drink coffee twice a week. Un 'used to' supera la otra regla. Para usar el pasado en Español, en mi experiencia, tenemos que tener en cuenta varios conceptos a la vez. ¿No te parece?
+LightSpeed Spanish Sí, la verdad es que el pasado en español es un tema complejo de explicar, ¡ojalá hubiera fórmulas exactas como en las matemáticas! Un saludo y seguid así me parecen muy interesantes vuestros vídeos ;-)
What about a sentence like, "When I lived in Mexico, I ran on the beach every morning." Wouldn't this be "Cuando vivía en México, trotaba en la playa cada mañana." For the second part of the sentence relating to the verb "trotar", I can answer one of the two questions--"how often?"--every morning. It is, however, still imperfect right?
This maybe the wrong of thinking but the way I was taught was. Is it something that is still happening? Or is it the least of our concern? In other words if there's no certainty of whether the action is still taking place, or if it is taking place we use the imperfect, but if it's less likely or we know for certain that these actions are no longer being repeated then it's preterit
The imperfect past is definitely not still happening. All past is over. The difference is, the preterite totally measurable and the imperfect is very unclear, general and unmeasurable. But BOTH are finished. Check out our latest blog on our web page advanced Intermediate podcast 28. It is being posted tomorrow. Read the blog. It will explain the answer to your question.
Dear Gordon, I am going mad....lol I love your posts like a fish loves water. However, my brain won't let me be. I understand the logic behind the preterite tests "how many? and how often?" and they are immensely helpful. However I am still having confidence issues about discerning between the preterite and imperfect. To better illustrate my personal issues, I am going to share with you our first review quiz of the semester regarding the use of the preterite and imperfect and how my brain works as i process the instructor's, the text's, and Lightspeed Spanish's pedagogy when it comes to choosing the correct form of the preterite and imperfect and how I am still operating at a 50% success rate when it comes to this subject. If you are kind enough to sit through this and lend me a comment afterwards, I would be eternally appreciative. The context of the fill in the blank paragraph is that Carla and her family used to vacation in Argentina every year and every year the routine was the same. But last year was different. My task was to conjugate each verb in parenthesis in the Imperfect or Preterite. All the verbs for which I was responsible come before the verb in parenthesis.... Cuando yo era (1. ser) nina mi familia y yo siempre ibamos (2. ir) de vacaciones a Argentina. La ruta era indiscutible. Todos los anos nosotros comprabamos (3. comprar) billetes de ida y vuelta de Nueva York a Buenos Aires mis padres. Cuando llegabamos (4. llegar) a Buenos Aires mis padres recogian (5. rocoger) las maletas y yo hacia (6. hacer) la cola para pasar por aduanas. Cuando nosotos saliamos (7. salir) del aeropuerto siempre tomabamos (8. tomar) un taxi para ir al hotel y pasar ir a hotel y pasar una semana descansando. Pero el ano pasado fue differente. Mientras mi madre y mi padre estaban (9. estar) en la cola yo conoci (10. conocer) a un muchacho que trabaja en el aeropuerto. Carlos me ayudo (11. ayudar) con las maletas y desde alli el y yo empezabamos (12. empezar) a ser grandes amigos. Esa noche Carlos me llevamos (13. llevar) a un restaurante argentino y despues nosotros fuimos (14. ir) a ver una opera. Al dia siguiente, mientras mis padres descansaban (15. descansar) en el hotel, Carlos y yo paseabamos (16. pasear) por la ciudad y el me hablaba (17. hablar) de la cultura Argentina y lo importante que es el futbol para ellos. Nosotros pasamos (18. pasar) unos dias lindos en Buenos Aires pero pronto llegamos (19. llegar) el momento de regresar a casa. Carlos me pediste (20. pedir) mi numero de telefono y desde alli hablabamos todos los dias. I am under the assumption that all the answers in the above paragraph are correct. I missed 7 answers: #'s 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 19, and 20. After applying your pedagogy and through careful consideration of that pedagogy ONLY here is how I am thinking about EVERY answer, assuming that my corrections are accurate: 1-8 are all Imperfect because in each scenario the verbs are translated into English as form of the infinitive "to be", respectively: was/ used to/ used to/ we would/ would pick up/ would/ would/ would 9. not an exactly measurable time frame 10. you meet someone once and what's done is done 11. in this instance the helping has a measurable time period 12. starting a friendship is not exactly measurable 13. going to a restaurant has a beginning and an end 14. operas happen in a measurable time frame *15 and 16: while they were...ing, we were...ing there is no mention of how long EXACTLY her parents were sleeping and how long they were spending time in the city. 17. these conversational topics could have been off and on throughout the day 18. the days are measurable 19. measurable--you only return once in this context 20. we can assume that when you ask a person for their phone number you only have to ask once or twice if they are paying attention The confusion for me is that there is a grammatical paradigm governing the use of the imperfect and preterit and I am committing a lot of infractions within the boundaries of the game. All of the actions in the two paragraphs are sequential, per se, but your post has helped me to further make sense of these two elusive perspectives concerning the past in Spanish grammar. I would love to hear your thoughts on my analysis of this paragraph. Thank you so much for your time, Gordon. Lawrence
Lawrence Malcheff Lawrence, firstly, well done for the interesting analysis. The main issue with the preterite and the imperfect is that they are more flexible than a workbook can show. Sometimes you can use both tenses and be right. What I have noticed is that some of the answers in your exercise are of the right tense but the wrong person. Because of that, I'm a little confused about where you went wrong and the answers you were given. Let me highlight what I see to be incorrect. 12, To start has a starting point and so can be measured. I would say, Desde entonces/ese momento empezamos a ser... 13. Carlos took me. You used the right tense but used first person plural we. The right person is HE . Carlos me llevó 16, 17, I would be very happy to use preterite in both of these although by no means would I say that the imperfect was wrong. 19. Again, you used the correct tense but the incorrect person. Pusiste LLEGAMOS, but the sentence said, the moment arrived which is LLEGÓ el momento. (it not we) 20, Because I speak Spanish from Spain, I would much prefer to use the perfect tense here. Since then we have spoken every day. Desde entonces hemos hablado todos los días. In Argentina I believe they don't use the perfect tense but rather the preterite in its place. So, I assume they would say "hablamos todos los días". Check out my suggestions and comments and then ask me the things that still cause you confusion. Hasta pronto, Lawrence. Gordon :)
Dear Gordon, Thank you for your insight and corrections. I have made the corrections with my instructor tonight after class and we talked further on the paragraphs. I am getting better for sure. The time nuances are tricky but they will come. What i did was like how people do not check the symbols as they perform mathematical operations...in short i was lazy. I was so hung up on the "is it preterite or imperfect" that i forgot to conjugate correctly. I know my conjugations mush better that what i have shown, for sure. so i understand your concerns regarding that issue. I will be on touch. I have enough to think about from your responses and I want to work on them for a bit before I write you all again. A million thanks for the support, Lawrence
its frustrate me that everyone says that ESTA Manana is imperfect but you say its preterite, i listen also to you your potcast so why is this? do they not understand spanish?
If you're not going to offer any further information in that sentence then I'd say: Esta mañana comí pan/ estuve en el supermercado. But if there's more to it it could be Imperfect: Esta mañana estaba en el supermercado cuando el jefe me llamó. :)
Wait my brain hurts. Can't the past be measurable anyways without exact certainty? Say for example your sentence when I lived in Mexico I ate on the patio. Even though your not giving a duration of how long you lived in Mexico you still lived there at some point that you can calculate from when you were there to when you left.
I guess that when, in English, you can say "we used to (eat on the patio)", then the Spanish requires the imperfect. Just a very personal rule of thumb.
Thanks for this video but I still have a question. To be 'devil's advocate'-sticking with your breakfast in Mexico example-if you were there for say 6 months, isn't that a measurable amount of time that could be preterite? I'm currently in Spain and used estaba to say "Estaba in Bolivia por dos meses"-I was corrected to say estuve instead...but I'm still confused because given your example you know you ate breakfast on the patio in Mexico for a certain number of months? Thanks very much!
Libby Schaefer Okay, Libby. What you are doing is what I call "over egging it", over analysing it. In reality, if you wanted to, you could measure everything. You could go through your calender and work out how many breakfasts you had you could. In this context, the sentence is a USED TO. When I lived in Mexico, I used to eat breakfast on the patio. If you can put USED TO into the sentence and it makes sense, it will likely be Imperfect.
Ok so I don't know the rules but I think estuve is uses for Long periods of time for example if you were to leave your house without saying anything for the whole day someone will ask you adonde estuviste todo el día or in your case you where gone for two months but if you would go for a walk around the block they might ask you adonde estabas
thank you so muchhhh :) this video was very helpful and i like the mnemonic "Ab(b)a used to sing mamamía" :D You deserve more viewers. I'm just a little confused with this sentence No (ir) ______ a la fiesta de la empresa porque (estar) _____ de mal humor.
Michelle Ger Diría yo....No fui a la fiesta porque estuve/estaba de mal humor. The last option could be both. The first is preterite. What confuses you?
Dear Gordon, I have come up with my own two paragraphs about the beginning of my day today. I am going to give you my almost expert analysis of the verbs and I would value greatly your analysis as well. This morning I woke up (1.P) and there was (2. I) a plumber working in the basement. He said (3. P) there was (4. I) a problem with our water pressure. He said (5. P) that he needed (6. P) to come back after he talked (7. P) with his boss. After he left (8. P) I spoke (9. P) with my parents about what their plans were for the day and I left (10. P) the house to go buy a gyro. I talked (11. P) on the phone with my friend Earl while in the Greek restaurant waiting for my order. I paid (12. P) for my food and went home. When I arrived (P) at my house my parents left (13. p) me a note on the front door telling me that they went (14. P) to go see the grand kids and that they would be back before 10pm. I read (15. P) the note and turned on some jazz. While I was eating I began (16. P) to think about my study schedule and how I was (17. I) going to get my tasks done in time to watch a baseball game that I recorded (18. P) the day before. 1. you only wake up once 2. background info and not really measurable as far as time 3. how often? once..in other words you can count how many times 4. background info, not a defined time period 5. one time thing 6. not measurable or defined in time 7. assume that he and his boss are going to have a discussion and be done after a decision is made (measurable time frame for the specific discussion of what to do about the water pressure 8. he can only leave once in this scenario 9. over and done 10. over and done 11. over and done 12. over and done 13. over and done 14. how often did i arrive at my house in this instance? once 15. you can put a time frame on this action and it is not repeated, they left it and then they left 16. they went one time 17. i read the note and was on my way to do something else 18. i turned on the music and began to do something else 19. i started another task and even though I don't say how long i studied Spanish, the point is that I began one time the act of studying so that makes the action definitely measurable. What is your take on this analysis, Gordon? I appreciate your time and input. Thank you, Lawrence Malcheff
Lawrence Malcheff Hola Lawrence. I'm short of time now but I would like you to do something. I would like you to look at the use of the perfect tenses. You have written in English some sentences that I would most certainly have placed in the pluscuamperfecto tense (había). Example: 13 My parents left me a note. I would say, My parents had left me a note. Mis padres me habían dejado una nota. In Spanish, this structure would demand the same us of the pluperfect. There are more instances in your story of this structure. have a look and see if you can get the idea of how the pluperfect works in English. If not, it will have you very confused.
Hola Grodon! thank you for writing me back. You rule, man. In my Spanish course, up til now, we have only covered the imperativo, presente de indicativo, imperfect/preterite, and just today we had a lecture about the perfecto de indicativo. after that will be the subjunctive. The pluscamperfecto comes on a little bit later in the semester. But i will keep you posted on my progress. I was agonizing over the pret/imp usage because i am tired of missing answers by the score when i practice more than the average person. I see that my English was not grammatically sound and that is maybe why you have commented on my use of the pluscamperfecto, which i did not intend to do. I just wanted to put the events of my day in the past tense and see if i could translate them into pret/ imperfect. I am going to peruse these tenses over the weekend and compare them to the pret/imperfect tenses, but I will not really spend too much time on them as i have three other classes to balance. But I think that i have made some forward progress and i will just keep my head to the push, sir.... Thank you again for writing me back, Lawrence
Something important about "Ser" and "Estar" is there seems to be an "exception" regarding permanence which is someone who is dead (as permanent as it gets) "está muerto". My guess is the reason for this might be religious [the afterlife] or because being dead is not what defined that person (or not "the plan"). I was also surprised that being married is also always "estar". In the modern world, this makes perfect sense because divorce is rather common, but I imagine that in medieval times on the Iberian peninsula when the rules for the language were being made, it was absolutely not. My guess here is the reason it was "estar" and not "ser" is because even then it was temporary in the sense of "death do we part".
epochrpg I believe it has to do with the fact that SER is Permanent Trait and ESTAR a temporary STATE. Death is a state. When the Pope dies, he is said to be lying in state. I think this is the references. Estar refers to our status. Marital status, for example. In Spanish is Estado Civil. It uses ESTAR. Thus, death is a state, just as living is a state. We say: Estoy vivo, Está muerto. That's my take on it anyway.
After four years of studying Spanish, in thirteen minutes and fiftythree seconds you have given me a clear understanding of the two Spanish past tenses. Thanks alot.
jeff arney jajaja. That's great. Thanks for the great feedback. :)
Comprendo. Thank you for being so very articulate and clear in your vids. Best Spanish instructions I've ever come across.
The Accented Guy Quinnie Gracias. I'm glad they helped:)
I followed your advice asking the questions, "how many times or how often ?" and it works! I received a 98% on this section of a very long exam. There were nearly 100 questions testing the preterite vs. imperf. and I have never scored so high. There are a couple exceptions to the rules of course however, it worked literally 98% of the time. THANKS!!! So simple and so clear.
where did you take an 100 question Spanish test? in college?
It seems to me that we are setting the background information in the imperfect, but as soon as the preterite barges in we let go of the background and focus on the new preterite event. I mean smelling the flowers in the imperfect is fine until your house catches fire in the preterite and demands your attention. Well done Gordon.
You are awesome, Gordon! That has to be the best explanation I've ever heard on those two verb tenses. Well done!
Muchas gracias :)
Este video es el mejor! He visto muchas veces.
OMG! I finally found my teacher!!! Thank you!
;)
Soy Filipino. Estudio Español solo desde hace un año. Despues de ver tus videos, creo que puedes ayudarme con muchas cosas que no entiendo. Tus videos son eficazes y te mando un beso porque eres muy maestro genial. Qué claro.
+Jefferson Orito Gracias:)
Dang, your explanations are great! I've heard a lot of attempts to define these in my years of "kind of" learning Spanish, but never this clear. Set the background in imperfect, then give the action in preterit. Bloody brilliant. Thanks!
7:58 "all of that was preterit" all of that was imperfect!
Even he can't make sense of it 🤣
Yeah that threw me as well.
As ever, excellent ...
Patrick McDonald Qué amable, Patrick:)
Best explanation I have ever found of the preterite and imperfect!
¡Gracias! :)
Hi Gordon. I don't know how many videos I watched on that subject.. but YOURS is definitely THE BEST!!! muchas gracias!
¡Muchas gracias! :)
Very succinct and fresh explanation. Completely solidified my knowledge of the two. thanks
Thank you, cronot7 :)
Loved your rant. It was very useful!
Farra Allice De nada. :)
Dude you always make me laugh and your teaching is spot on.
Thanks!
This was a great way to help me imagine which past tense to use when I am speaking in Spanish. Thank you.
great video. As usual. Cheers
Great video.
Gracias :)
You're a good teacher my bro
+The Banterlope Thank you:)
Por otra vez, ¡una gran película!
Aunque soy de Alemania, sólo veo vuestros vídeos, porque en mi opinión están los mejores en UA-cam
Flusinator99 Muchísimas gracias:)
Gracias Leo. At least we have the speech bubble to put things right. jeje
A VERY good explanation thank you.
That was one of the best explanations of the distinction between preterite and imperfect that I've come across. My wife (who hasn't taken Spanish since high school) was listening in the background and she came away with a clear understanding of the two. I'll be showing part of the video to my students tomorrow in class.
Fantastic! :)
awesome… focused, funny and clear
Silke Wettergren Gracias :)
Miraba a su video y me di cuenta de que Ud. es un buen maestro. Buen trabajo explicando las diferencias entre el pasado y lo imperfecto. ¡¡¡Muchas gracias!!!
Muchas gracias por el comemtario tan bonito:)
You're right. I just listened to it. jejeje. I will put a voice bubble to put that right. Gracias por decírmelo Respondón.
you really are a great Spanish teacher' thank you for your help
Hola Gordon: as usual you are a big help! Thank you for all your help on the Preterit! You said to keep trying and I am happy to say it makes sense now! Thanks again for all the support!!! :)
+Nicole D Felicidades, Nicole. Gracias a ti.
Great explanation, I have grown to think of the two tenses in a comic book type of format. what you would draw to set the scene is imperfect what shows action in the frames is preterite. Not a 100% fail proof but works great most of the time
natureknowsnotofmercy Great metaphor. I like it.
Gordon absolut fantastico. for the first time understood this preterite stuff
soha saba Brill. I'm glad. Thanks:)
You are a genius in language teaching.
Thank you!!
Excellent video. Thank you!!!
¡Excelente! Mil gracias por este vídeo.
Nieko White De nada:)
You are a splendid and FUNNY teacher
Muchísimas gracias senor Gordon! You are a hero
One of the best explanations on how to use the two tenses. Since I am a Spanish tutor, this will be of tremendous help to me. Thank you!
Deborah Howze Excellent, Deborah. I'm glad you liked it. :)
such a good teacher .. thank you
¡Gracias!
A brilliant explanation. Finally got it.
¡Fantástico! Cx
Gracias once again senor LightSpeed Spanish manages to pull it off again got a 95 on my test!!!!!!!
Sur Vod Muy bien hecho. Me alegro por ti. :)
Thanks for this clear explanation 👍
Gracias mi hermano. me ayudaste mucho!
¡Me alegro mucho!
Brilliant. Ive akways struggled with this since I started learning French aged 11, 62 years ago. 🤭 our French teacher had worked as a proof reader in Paris for years but I suspect had never, in common with others of our 'teachers' been trained in how to teach.
Hello I would like to thank you for making these videos, I have studied Spanish for a year and been successful in learning a lot in that time period, although I am not learning a lot of grammar because the person I learn from is 23 but he moved from Mexico when he was 14 and never really payed attention to the grammar, so I basically never knew things like preterite or imperfect, but now having found these videos has made learning Spanish even easier grammar since you have such focused and we'll planned lessons (while keeping a funny side to them which is nice since Spanish is not all serious haha) so anyway I would like to thank you very much for
1-providing the Spain Spanish side of things and phrases and
2- helping me with grammar and how easy you make the concepts seem
chandler wheat De nada, Chandler. Ha sido nuestro placer. Gracias por el mensaje tan bonito.
Simply brilliant! I am speaking as a foreign language teacher and learner. ¡Muchas gracias!
Muchas gracias :)
Thank you great video
Great stuff again, Gordon. You is dee man, compañero! I'm hooked...
Me gustó su presentación este mañana.
I hope this is correct since I am a relative beginner-intermediate student.
I enjoyed your presentation this morning.
¡Bien hecho!
+joealcorn105 Muy bien.....esta mañana.
The tip that helped me a lot was from Language Transfer audios: the preterite is a dot in the past, the imperfect is a line in the past.
Gracias. Es muy buen.
:)
Great video soooo much clearer thank you.
Gordon, I am studying to become a Spanish teacher and I can't wait to use your explanations to simplify the language for my students!
¡Mucha suerte! :)
Heather Kuechenmeister i
Muchas gracias 😍
A ti :)
I found your audiobook on the subjunctive. Why not Audible? It's well worth a credit.
Daniel: We are in the priocess of having all of the books accepted on Audible again. However, it may take a while as they don't travel at speed! Keep an eye out. They'll eventually appear.
Let’s also keep in mind that sometimes, whether you say a verb as of preterite or imperfect tense can affect the meaning of the verb. In the preterite tense, “saber” (to know truth) means to have found out, “conocer” (to know as in be familiar with) means to have met, and “querer” (to want or to love) with a negative word means to have refused. In other words, “querer” with a negative word in the imperfect tense must mean that although someone or something had no desire to do whatever, he/she/it did the deed nevertheless.
Thank you! :)
THANK YOU!
After a week of trying to figure this out, I finally found a video that made it sooooooooo easy. Thank-you!!!!!! :)
P Lomax Muchas gracias, P Lomax.
Eres un excelente maestro. De hecho superior de los demás.
¡Gracias, Noa! :)
got confused at 7:34 preterite?
I have just realised that the reason i was stuck on these two tenses was because of the " completed" word!!
Thank you!!
You explained the imperfect as something that was going on.. but isn't that the imperfect continuous?
sunflower7202 There really is little difference between estaba hablando y hablaba. The former puts you in the moment more, but they are pretty much the same thing. :)
oh okay, thanks for clearing that up and for the speedy reply! love your videos!
I have been learning Spanish on/off for years and I still can not speak fluently and I know it is because of PAST TENSES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your videos have been so helpful thank you :)
¡Genial, Sofía! :)
Hi Gordon. I don't know if you made a mistake by saying the "was...ing, were...ing and used to" was PRETERITE. Shouldn't it be IMPERFECT? It is around 7:57 mark.
Thanks.
The Accented Guy Quinnie Yes. I put a little speech bubble that said it should be Imperfect. It was late, I was tired. jeje.
Muchas gracias Gordon! Me estas ayudando mucho! (Pero creo que ahora tengo dolor de cabeza. Jejeje)
Brian Ford Jajaja. Tómate una pastilla...o un whiskey.
do you have a learning book out?
In Russian they explain the imperfect like this When something is not perfect thus imperfecto you have to repeat it many times. A habit is also not perfect so you have to repeat it. The indefinido they have perfecto (but this seems to be the same) is to perfect you have to do it once. This is with your explainacion helps me a lot. And the mnemonic ab(b)a sings ia is great.
Genial :) Cx
Excellent explanation. However, Gordon sometimes misspeaks and calls something one thing when he means the other, e.g., at 7:58.
Sorry! Thanks for pointing it out! Cynthia x
First of all, thank you, this is very helpful to distinguish between imperfecto and indefinido.
But, now I am confused about the use of preterito perfecto.
You keep using "this morning" for the examples, but wouldn't that require preterito perfecto, like "esta mañana he bajado las escaleras etc etc " ?
how do we know if youve responded?
Christina. You should have this reply. Let me know if you get this. It's best to contact us through our website or come and join our facebook group. search for LightSpeed Spanish.
As a native speaker of Italian, I think I've got a kind of "gut feeling" on how and when to use imperfect and preterite in Spanish, but of course I might be completely wrong: do you think that speaking another Romance language may help you when it comes to the difference between imperfect and preterite?
I think it does. I agree that with other Romance language you get the feeling of something much moe easily than with non-Romance languages :)
But now I don't know how to I can distribute them both. They both seam confusing. Maybe it's because from studying relativity I might be confused
theelectrokitten Relativity?
"wipe you bottom with it, and throw it away" :-)
"What a load of rubbish." lol...
"If you tell stories like that, STOP IT." LOL...
This video did help quite a bit with these two past tense conjugations that continuously frustrated me. Thanks for this.
***** De nada, Frank :)
On a serious comment, at 7:47 you said you were talking with Cynthia about what we had done the previous day... what you did the previous day... that's measurable, because a time frame was indicated. Isnt that preterite?
Just because we say "yesterday" we are not measuring it and we can still describe something that happened yesterday and use the Imperfect. Measurements = one hour, all day, a long while, a short while, ect. But just saying "yesterday" isn't a measurement. You can use it with both tenses. Cx
"Cuando vivía en Mexico bebía café dos veces a la semana". Es pret. imperfecto, pero puede ser medido, ¿no?. How many times? -> "dos veces a la semana". ¿Este ejemplo no cumple esa regla?
+gargarpimpon Correcto. Lo que pasa es que no hay sólo una regla que pueda funcionar siempre sino varias. Por ejemplo, a tu frase, en English podemos añadirle 'used to' y tendría sentido. I used to drink coffee twice a week. Un 'used to' supera la otra regla. Para usar el pasado en Español, en mi experiencia, tenemos que tener en cuenta varios conceptos a la vez. ¿No te parece?
+LightSpeed Spanish Sí, la verdad es que el pasado en español es un tema complejo de explicar, ¡ojalá hubiera fórmulas exactas como en las matemáticas! Un saludo y seguid así me parecen muy interesantes vuestros vídeos ;-)
What about a sentence like, "When I lived in Mexico, I ran on the beach every morning." Wouldn't this be "Cuando vivía en México, trotaba en la playa cada mañana." For the second part of the sentence relating to the verb "trotar", I can answer one of the two questions--"how often?"--every morning. It is, however, still imperfect right?
Would it also be possible for me to say, "Yo viví en Chile 5 años", due to the fact that it's measureable, even though it was over a period of time?
Yes, repetitive action :)
5 años is the measure.
This maybe the wrong of thinking but the way I was taught was. Is it something that is still happening? Or is it the least of our concern? In other words if there's no certainty of whether the action is still taking place, or if it is taking place we use the imperfect, but if it's less likely or we know for certain that these actions are no longer being repeated then it's preterit
The imperfect past is definitely not still happening. All past is over. The difference is, the preterite totally measurable and the imperfect is very unclear, general and unmeasurable. But BOTH are finished. Check out our latest blog on our web page advanced Intermediate podcast 28. It is being posted tomorrow. Read the blog. It will explain the answer to your question.
Dear Gordon,
I am going mad....lol
I love your posts like a fish loves water. However, my brain won't let me be. I understand the logic behind the preterite tests "how many? and how often?" and they are immensely helpful. However I am still having confidence issues about discerning between the preterite and imperfect. To better illustrate my personal issues, I am going to share with you our first review quiz of the semester regarding the use of the preterite and imperfect and how my brain works as i process the instructor's, the text's, and Lightspeed Spanish's pedagogy when it comes to choosing the correct form of the preterite and imperfect and how I am still operating at a 50% success rate when it comes to this subject. If you are kind enough to sit through this and lend me a comment afterwards, I would be eternally appreciative.
The context of the fill in the blank paragraph is that Carla and her family used to vacation in Argentina every year and every year the routine was the same. But last year was different. My task was to conjugate each verb in parenthesis in the Imperfect or Preterite. All the verbs for which I was responsible come before the verb in parenthesis....
Cuando yo era (1. ser) nina mi familia y yo siempre ibamos (2. ir) de vacaciones a Argentina. La ruta era indiscutible. Todos los anos nosotros comprabamos (3. comprar) billetes de ida y vuelta de Nueva York a Buenos Aires mis padres. Cuando llegabamos (4. llegar) a Buenos Aires mis padres recogian (5. rocoger) las maletas y yo hacia (6. hacer) la cola para pasar por aduanas. Cuando nosotos saliamos (7. salir) del aeropuerto siempre tomabamos (8. tomar) un taxi para ir al hotel y pasar ir a hotel y pasar una semana descansando.
Pero el ano pasado fue differente. Mientras mi madre y mi padre estaban (9. estar) en la cola yo conoci (10. conocer) a un muchacho que trabaja en el aeropuerto. Carlos me ayudo (11. ayudar) con las maletas y desde alli el y yo empezabamos (12. empezar) a ser grandes amigos. Esa noche Carlos me llevamos (13. llevar) a un restaurante argentino y despues nosotros fuimos (14. ir) a ver una opera. Al dia siguiente, mientras mis padres descansaban (15. descansar) en el hotel, Carlos y yo paseabamos (16. pasear) por la ciudad y el me hablaba (17. hablar) de la cultura Argentina y lo importante que es el futbol para ellos. Nosotros pasamos (18. pasar) unos dias lindos en Buenos Aires pero pronto llegamos (19. llegar) el momento de regresar a casa. Carlos me pediste (20. pedir) mi numero de telefono y desde alli hablabamos todos los dias.
I am under the assumption that all the answers in the above paragraph are correct. I missed 7 answers: #'s 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 19, and 20.
After applying your pedagogy and through careful consideration of that pedagogy ONLY here is how I am thinking about EVERY answer, assuming that my corrections are accurate:
1-8 are all Imperfect because in each scenario the verbs are translated into English as form of the infinitive "to be", respectively: was/ used to/ used to/ we would/ would pick up/ would/ would/ would
9. not an exactly measurable time frame
10. you meet someone once and what's done is done
11. in this instance the helping has a measurable time period
12. starting a friendship is not exactly measurable
13. going to a restaurant has a beginning and an end
14. operas happen in a measurable time frame
*15 and 16: while they were...ing, we were...ing there is no mention of how long EXACTLY her parents were sleeping and how long they were spending time in the city.
17. these conversational topics could have been off and on throughout the day
18. the days are measurable
19. measurable--you only return once in this context
20. we can assume that when you ask a person for their phone number you only have to ask once or twice if they are paying attention
The confusion for me is that there is a grammatical paradigm governing the use of the imperfect and preterit and I am committing a lot of infractions within the boundaries of the game. All of the actions in the two paragraphs are sequential, per se, but your post has helped me to further make sense of these two elusive perspectives concerning the past in Spanish grammar.
I would love to hear your thoughts on my analysis of this paragraph.
Thank you so much for your time, Gordon.
Lawrence
Lawrence Malcheff Lawrence, firstly, well done for the interesting analysis. The main issue with the preterite and the imperfect is that they are more flexible than a workbook can show. Sometimes you can use both tenses and be right. What I have noticed is that some of the answers in your exercise are of the right tense but the wrong person. Because of that, I'm a little confused about where you went wrong and the answers you were given.
Let me highlight what I see to be incorrect.
12, To start has a starting point and so can be measured. I would say, Desde entonces/ese momento empezamos a ser...
13. Carlos took me. You used the right tense but used first person plural we. The right person is HE . Carlos me llevó
16, 17, I would be very happy to use preterite in both of these although by no means would I say that the imperfect was wrong.
19. Again, you used the correct tense but the incorrect person. Pusiste LLEGAMOS, but the sentence said, the moment arrived which is LLEGÓ el momento. (it not we)
20, Because I speak Spanish from Spain, I would much prefer to use the perfect tense here. Since then we have spoken every day. Desde entonces hemos hablado todos los días. In Argentina I believe they don't use the perfect tense but rather the preterite in its place. So, I assume they would say "hablamos todos los días".
Check out my suggestions and comments and then ask me the things that still cause you confusion.
Hasta pronto, Lawrence. Gordon :)
Dear Gordon,
Thank you for your insight and corrections. I have made the corrections with my instructor tonight after class and we talked further on the paragraphs. I am getting better for sure. The time nuances are tricky but they will come. What i did was like how people do not check the symbols as they perform mathematical operations...in short i was lazy. I was so hung up on the "is it preterite or imperfect" that i forgot to conjugate correctly. I know my conjugations mush better that what i have shown, for sure. so i understand your concerns regarding that issue.
I will be on touch. I have enough to think about from your responses and I want to work on them for a bit before I write you all again.
A million thanks for the support,
Lawrence
what if you were to say " I lived in mexico for 8 years" would you use the preterite for this? Yo vivi en mexico por ocho anos?
Sí: Viví en México (por) 8 años.
MrLuke847 I'd say so.
In your example When I lived in Mexico...preterite or imperfect?
Cuando viví or vivía en México are both correct, depending on the rest of the sentence and the time frame you provide or not. Cx
De nada.
its frustrate me that everyone says that ESTA Manana is imperfect but you say its preterite, i listen also to you your potcast so why is this? do they not understand spanish?
What is the full sentence with Esta mañana? :)
LightSpeed Spanish ESTA manana i eat bread or esta manana i was at the supermarkt
If you're not going to offer any further information in that sentence then I'd say: Esta mañana comí pan/ estuve en el supermercado. But if there's more to it it could be Imperfect: Esta mañana estaba en el supermercado cuando el jefe me llamó. :)
LightSpeed Spanish thank you
Cuando vivía en mexico comía afuera en el patio.
what is the gramamtical difference between saying miraba and estaba mirando in spanish?
Not much except estaba mirando feels like a longer action. Cx
Is this still correct even though i'm using present perfect? "He estado en este restaurante diez veces." Could I aslo use the preterite?
He estado is correct. You could say: estuve en este restaurante 10 veces antes, but I'd go for present perfect first :) Cx
+sub but you should have cut out an redid that part where u were wrong
+J Wightman There's something in what you say.
Wait my brain hurts. Can't the past be measurable anyways without exact certainty? Say for example your sentence when I lived in Mexico I ate on the patio. Even though your not giving a duration of how long you lived in Mexico you still lived there at some point that you can calculate from when you were there to when you left.
I guess that when, in English, you can say "we used to (eat on the patio)", then the Spanish requires the imperfect. Just a very personal rule of thumb.
theelectrokitten Yeah that's what I thought too.
Thanks for this video but I still have a question. To be 'devil's advocate'-sticking with your breakfast in Mexico example-if you were there for say 6 months, isn't that a measurable amount of time that could be preterite? I'm currently in Spain and used estaba to say "Estaba in Bolivia por dos meses"-I was corrected to say estuve instead...but I'm still confused because given your example you know you ate breakfast on the patio in Mexico for a certain number of months? Thanks very much!
Libby Schaefer Okay, Libby. What you are doing is what I call "over egging it", over analysing it. In reality, if you wanted to, you could measure everything. You could go through your calender and work out how many breakfasts you had you could. In this context, the sentence is a USED TO. When I lived in Mexico, I used to eat breakfast on the patio. If you can put USED TO into the sentence and it makes sense, it will likely be Imperfect.
LightSpeed Spanish ok ahora yo entiendo, muchas gracias!!
Ok so I don't know the rules but I think estuve is uses for Long periods of time for example if you were to leave your house without saying anything for the whole day someone will ask you adonde estuviste todo el día or in your case you where gone for two months but if you would go for a walk around the block they might ask you adonde estabas
Libby Schaefer Agreed.
thank you so muchhhh :) this video was very helpful and i like the mnemonic "Ab(b)a used to sing mamamía" :D
You deserve more viewers.
I'm just a little confused with this sentence
No (ir) ______ a la fiesta de la empresa porque (estar) _____ de mal humor.
Michelle Ger Diría yo....No fui a la fiesta porque estuve/estaba de mal humor. The last option could be both. The first is preterite. What confuses you?
Dear Gordon,
I have come up with my own two paragraphs about the beginning of my day today. I am going to give you my almost expert analysis of the verbs and I would value greatly your analysis as well.
This morning I woke up (1.P) and there was (2. I) a plumber working in the basement. He said (3. P) there was (4. I) a problem with our water pressure. He said (5. P) that he needed (6. P) to come back after he talked (7. P) with his boss.
After he left (8. P) I spoke (9. P) with my parents about what their plans were for the day and I left (10. P) the house to go buy a gyro. I talked (11. P) on the phone with my friend Earl while in the Greek restaurant waiting for my order. I paid (12. P) for my food and went home.
When I arrived (P) at my house my parents left (13. p) me a note on the front door telling me that they went (14. P) to go see the grand kids and that they would be back before 10pm.
I read (15. P) the note and turned on some jazz. While I was eating I began (16. P) to think about my study schedule and how I was (17. I) going to get my tasks done in time to watch a baseball game that I recorded (18. P) the day before.
1. you only wake up once
2. background info and not really measurable as far as time
3. how often? once..in other words you can count how many times
4. background info, not a defined time period
5. one time thing
6. not measurable or defined in time
7. assume that he and his boss are going to have a discussion and be done after a decision is made (measurable time frame for the specific discussion of what to do about the water pressure
8. he can only leave once in this scenario
9. over and done
10. over and done
11. over and done
12. over and done
13. over and done
14. how often did i arrive at my house in this instance? once
15. you can put a time frame on this action and it is not repeated, they left it and then they left
16. they went one time
17. i read the note and was on my way to do something else
18. i turned on the music and began to do something else
19. i started another task and even though I don't say how long i studied Spanish, the point is that I began one time the act of studying so that makes the action definitely measurable.
What is your take on this analysis, Gordon?
I appreciate your time and input.
Thank you,
Lawrence Malcheff
Lawrence Malcheff Hola Lawrence. I'm short of time now but I would like you to do something. I would like you to look at the use of the perfect tenses. You have written in English some sentences that I would most certainly have placed in the pluscuamperfecto tense (había). Example: 13 My parents left me a note. I would say, My parents had left me a note. Mis padres me habían dejado una nota. In Spanish, this structure would demand the same us of the pluperfect. There are more instances in your story of this structure. have a look and see if you can get the idea of how the pluperfect works in English. If not, it will have you very confused.
Hola Grodon! thank you for writing me back. You rule, man. In my Spanish course, up til now, we have only covered the imperativo, presente de indicativo, imperfect/preterite, and just today we had a lecture about the perfecto de indicativo. after that will be the subjunctive. The pluscamperfecto comes on a little bit later in the semester. But i will keep you posted on my progress.
I was agonizing over the pret/imp usage because i am tired of missing answers by the score when i practice more than the average person. I see that my English was not grammatically sound and that is maybe why you have commented on my use of the pluscamperfecto, which i did not intend to do. I just wanted to put the events of my day in the past tense and see if i could translate them into pret/ imperfect.
I am going to peruse these tenses over the weekend and compare them to the pret/imperfect tenses, but I will not really spend too much time on them as i have three other classes to balance. But I think that i have made some forward progress and i will just keep my head to the push, sir....
Thank you again for writing me back,
Lawrence
LightSpeed Spanish Wouldn't it be "Mis padres me hubieron dejado una nota"?
So the imperfect is a bunch of wibbley wobbley timey-wimey stuff?
Maybe wibbly wobbley :D
I'm 9 and i now Spanish and english
Basically:
I was using the imperfect tense, then suddenly he used the preterite tense.
Eso es :)
You make sense, lol
Mucho gracias. That whole "completed" nonsense made it almost impossible for me to figure it out.
You seem in a bad mood Cx I hope that you can figure it out soon. Cx
jejeje. That's what we do with useless rules. ¿Verdad?
Who eats breakfast on the patio
Your mom ;)
I understand English better now.
:D
Something important about "Ser" and "Estar" is there seems to be an "exception" regarding permanence which is someone who is dead (as permanent as it gets) "está muerto". My guess is the reason for this might be religious [the afterlife] or because being dead is not what defined that person (or not "the plan"). I was also surprised that being married is also always "estar". In the modern world, this makes perfect sense because divorce is rather common, but I imagine that in medieval times on the Iberian peninsula when the rules for the language were being made, it was absolutely not. My guess here is the reason it was "estar" and not "ser" is because even then it was temporary in the sense of "death do we part".
epochrpg I believe it has to do with the fact that SER is Permanent Trait and ESTAR a temporary STATE. Death is a state. When the Pope dies, he is said to be lying in state. I think this is the references. Estar refers to our status. Marital status, for example. In Spanish is Estado Civil. It uses ESTAR.
Thus, death is a state, just as living is a state. We say: Estoy vivo, Está muerto. That's my take on it anyway.
Gracias! Este es (o está?) más claro!
If you tell stories like that, Stop it! because it's bor-ing. This.
This comment made me realise the importance of the imperfect. Explained well mate
Gracias :)